Video Review: Neon Sign

Neon Sign

$1.99

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 2.0

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Reviewer: Evan

Check out our video review of Neon Sign, a unique application which works for the iPhone and the iPad. This app allows you to turn your iPad or iPhone into your very own customized Neon Sign. There are 100+ unique neon design and numerous flashing types that you can choose from. Watch our review and let us know what you think.

Check out my previous iPad app review here.

iPad App Review: Be Confident in Who You Are

Be Confident in Who You Are

$3.99

iPad only

Version: 1.0.1

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Rating: 4 of 5

I'm pretty sure you've seen a lot of comic books (or graphic novels) apps on the iPad these days. But, I can assure you that Be Confident in Who You Are is not your everyday interactive graphic novel. And depending on who you are, you can find this iPad app to be a great value to you or your loved ones. 

This graphic novel is illustrated by Matt Kindt and is based on the award-winning Middle School Confidential series written by teen expert Annie Fox. Be Confident in Who You Are is the first book of the series. This series is specially written for middle school students to help them to get along and overcome challenges in their schools. 

With middle school students in mind, this story is wonderfully illustrated and carefully designed as an interactive iPad app. The app includes music and sound effects to enhance the experience while reading the story. Each part of the story can be zoomed (by double tapping) to highlight the focus. And, to get the best experience with the music and sound effects, I recommend you read the story while in zoomed-in mode. From the technical perspective, I think this app is thoughtfully designed for maximum reading experience.

But the real value of this app is not in its tech-savviness, rather in its storyline and how it's able to resonate with our kids and remind them to be confident in who they are. There's no better way in getting a teen's attention than to be empathic with their struggling minds. Teens are exposed to new challenges everyday in school and in their environment. Getting an inspiring story like this into their hands can have a great impact on a teen's life.

I really appreciate what Annie Fox is doing here with the stories and this app. Using the iPad as a medium to speak to young kids are very valuable, especially for parents. If you're a parent or if you have friends/family who are struggling with their kids, there's no better gift than this app. Get it now and spread the word. You'll never know how great the impact you're making.

Check out my other iPad apps reviews here.

NEW Release: iMotion HD (Quick Review)

iMotion HD

FREE

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 1.0

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Reviewer: Evan

There are lots of photography apps on the App Store today, but looking for a good one for the iPad 2 can be a challenge. iMotion HD is a Universal app which was just released a few days ago and has already become one of my favorite camera apps for the iPad 2. With this app, you can create movies using stop-motion technique. It's something that's not commonly offered by other iPad apps on the App Store.

iMotion HD is an app that's very easy to use. When you start creating your movie, you can choose to use the iMotion Remote app (which is a separate app) to remotely control it, to use the automatic time-lapse camera with a mic, or to use the manual capture. You can also add a title for your movie. While making the video, you can use the onion skin or add the grid to help you get a better video. Depending on your settings, you may click capture or it may automatically take a picture within the period (in seconds) you set.

Once you're done with the movie, you're ready to share it. You can also edit the speed (time lapse between frames) to slow/fasten the movie. With an in-app purchase, you can export the movie to your photo albums, iTunes, e-mail account, YouTube or to the iMotion gallery.

Check out my previous iPad app review here.

App Reviews: Book Club Mobile for iPhone and Book Club Leader for iPad

Book Club Mobile for iPhone and Book Club Leader for iPad

$2.99 each

iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad

Version: 1.2

Tested on: iPod Touch 4G and iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Rating: 5 of 5

Reading books has always been a very inspiring experience that most book lovers can testify to. And, being in a book club can easily leverage that into something that's a whole lot better. But sometimes keeping book club meetings to be engaging and interesting may become a challenge in itself. Getting the right questions and topics to trigger discussions, and coming up with a list of candidates for the next session may become the key success factors for your book readers club.

Book Club Mobile is an excellent iPhone app that will help you maximize your book club meetings by suggesting questions and topics which are based on characters in the book, themes, plots, cultural/historical settings and how these different dynamics of the books relate to your personal experience in life. The app contains these detailed guides on around 200 book titles which are carefully selected to resemble what most book clubs are discussing. New reading guides are added on a daily basis to keep your book clubs fresh and always filled with great options to choose from.

The app is an excellent place to start your book readers discussion. With this app, you can gain the confidence to step up and lead the next session in your book clubs. Book Club Mobile allows you to sort the guiding questions by the type of questions and mark the ones which have already been discussed. 

Book Club Mobile has a beautiful design, and if you have an iPad, you should check the Book Club Leader for iPad. The design is just awesome. While these apps are keeping you on top of things during book discussions, they have a lot of features that would help you find the next book to discuss easily and elegantly. These apps have a strong integration with GoodReads API to get the readers ratings and use them to provide more information to their users. 

Both apps also have a section where you can easily find out more information about which books made the bestseller lists. You can use these lists to find inspiring books or even order the books directly from Amazon. I believe within the near future, we can easily purchase the book from the iBookstore too.

You also need to check out tips section where you can find various tips, ranging from dessert recipe, short articles, movie recommendations and more book recommendation. This brings the book club experience to a higher level than just book discussion. I think these tips will help you to keep your book club engaging.

Overall, I think this is a one-of-a-kind app that is thoughtfully designed. Not just being aesthetically pleasing, but every features are designed from the book lover perspectives and focused to help book club discussions to be engaging and interesting. I have a strong belief that with more people start using these apps and provide feedback to the developer team, they'll see these apps grow fast and become the essential kit for every book club in the world.

Now, for a limited period of time, you have a chance to win one promo code for the iPhone app and one promo code for the iPad app. And, here are the steps you need to take to get a chance to win it:

1. Follow @appenthusiast on Twitter
2. Tweet this: "Make your book clubs engaging with Book Club Mobile for iPhone, and get a chance to win a copy! http://bit.ly/jDnvtM via @appenthusiast" or click the blue Twitter share button on the top right of this post.
3. Post a comment here indicating which Twitter account you're using and which version you'd like to win.
4. The contest ends on Sunday, May 8, 2011, 23:59 PST
5. I will choose randomly one winner for the iPhone version and one for the iPad version.

Check out my other iPhone apps here.

NEW Release: Decks for Apps (Quick Review)

Decks for Apps

FREE

iPad Only

Version: 1.0

Tested on: iPad 2 (iOS 4.3.2)

Decks for Apps is an iPad app made beautifully by the guys at Cooliris with a single purpose of allowing its users a simple and easy access to the top apps on the App Store. It is very simple indeed, yet very useful. The app is also beautifully designed, looks elegant, and is easy to use. 

The app has three different charts, i.e. Top 50 Free Apps, Top 50 Paid Apps and Top 50 Grossing Apps. Everyday the app will update itself with the latest information available on the App Store. So, you will always find new apps that allow you to maximize your experience using the iPad. 

To navigate, you can swipe to the left and right to see the previous or next app within the chart. You can also tap anywhere to flip the current view, so that it will show the detail description of the app and allow you to set it as one of your favorite apps. And if you're swiping up or down, you'll navigate yourself to the other Top 50 Apps Lists. 

The above screenshots highlight some of the best apps found in the Top 50 Apps Lists that you should check out, e.g. the Angry Birds Rio HD (which will be updated next week), Crackle, and Qwiki. There are plenty of other apps to discover on daily basis, and you can share your discovery with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Try Decks for Apps today and never miss the great apps for your iPad again.


Check out my other iPad apps reviews here.

NEW Update: Feedly (now for iPad too)

Feedly

FREE

Universal (iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad)

Version: 2.0.1

Tested on: iPad 2 and iPod Touch 4G (iOS 4.3.2)

Today, Feedly releases a new update which brings the app to the iPad. Previously, Feedly is only available for the iPhone. With this update, Feedly tries to position itself in the same league as Flipboard, Zite, and Reeder. The developer team of Feedly is using the HTML 5 approach which is aimed to work cross platform on the iPad, iPhone and Android. The result is a clean and minimalist look of the app. 

When you start the app for the first time, you'll see the Featured section displaying news selected by the Feedly developer team. But if you have a Google Reader account, you'd be more interested in learning how Feedly can display the feeds you read on regular basis. With a simple login, all your unread feeds will be formatted in a very clean layout. 

To read the news in its full length, you only need to click on the headline. Afterwards, you can swipe up and down to read the article, and swipe left or right to read the previous/next article. The article is laid out nicely by default. And if you're not satisfied with the layout, you can always choose to activate one of Feedly features which is able to optimize the view for your mobile device.

The app allows us to like an article, which in turn will give learning information for the app. Using this information, the app will gradually adjust its Featured section to suit your preferences. I haven't tried it long enough to see it work, but if it does work well, it'll probably be similar to what Zite has successfully carried out. 

Feedly also provides an in-app browser which looks very good. It seems to have built an in-app ad for its iPad version as well. I'm not sure whether this would be inline with the Apple's iAds guideline, especially because Feedly seems to be offering ad spaces to publishers or site owners. By clicking these in-app ads, Feedly takes me to various places, including Amazon's product detail page. 

I'm going to leave you with some of the screenshots showing how the app would look like on the iPhone. The screenshots also demonstrate another cool feature of the app where it can change the theme from black to white and vice versa by shaking the iPhone/iPad. Depending on your preferences and lighting in your reading environment, this feature can become very handy.

Overall, I think the new update brings Feedly to a new level, especially with its decision to use HTML 5 approach. It will become easier for them to implement cross platform updates in the future. This is a very different strategy compared with Reeder which is iOS specific and Flipboard/Zite which are iPad specific. The future seems to be a great one for news junkies with an iPad in hand.


Check out my other iPad app reviews here.

Auryn Ink for iPad: Get a Chance to Win a Copy

Auryn Ink

$4.99

iPad Only

Version: 1.3.2
Author: Evan

Auryn Ink is a revolutionary application that creates the authentic simulation of watercolor painting intuitively and easily. It provides everything you need to create, export and share beautiful works of art on the iPad. With this app, you can generate complete paintings with the touch of your finger. 

This app is selected as the best app in art category by Fast Company magazine. It even uses brushes and the paint reacts to the kind of digital canvas you use. Now, the developers of Auryn Ink want to give you a chance to win a copy of Auryn Ink.

For a very limited period of time (the codes expire on May 29, 2011), you have a chance to actually win one of the two promo codes for this great art app. And, here are the steps you need to take to get a chance to win the promo codes:

1. Follow @appenthusiast on Twitter
2. Tweet this: "Auryn Ink makes watercolor painting fun, and get a chance to win a copy! http://bit.ly/ktzPC4 via @appenthusiast" or just click the small blue Twitter share button on the top right of this post.
3. The contest ends on Tuesday, May 3, 2011 23:59 PST
4. I will choose the two winners randomly

Check out my previous iPad app reviews here.

Upcoming Update: Angry Birds Rio (Next Week)

Great news to all Angry Birds fans out there. The Finnish publisher, Rovio, is planning to launch an update to the Angry Birds Rio next week. With Rio the movie is still playing in cinemas this weekend, there's no better time to launch the update. Rio the movie has made over than $80M in gross revenue at the box office, and Rovio has made over than 140M downloads on all Angry Birds series. I guess more success for the Finnish publisher in the coming weeks.

If you haven't get your copy of Angry Birds Rio, I highly recommend you to get it now. Their Facebook photo post asked whether you've found all the Golden Pineapples and Bananas or not. You don't want to miss more actions and secrets in the upcoming update, right? I will leave you with the quotation from their Facebook wall, and keep you posted on the update. I hope they'll bring this update across all platforms, including the iPad and Mac versions too.